Mike Ashley Looking to Sell Newcastle United (again)

Well, the fans may get what they have been wanting for years. Mark Douglas of the Chronicle broke the story today that Mike Ashley has made a deal with a Chinese consortium to sell the club.

Douglas reports that the Chinese buyers have signed a non-disclosure agreement with United in their pursuit of the club. It is understood that the interest is serious, and the group has been looking to place an offer that is good enough to convince Ashley to sell, while keeping the whole operation quiet.

Fans have been skeptical and understandably so. We have seen this story before, most recently in 2013 when former Chief Scout Graham Carr stated that the reason for a lack of transfer business that followed the fifth-placed finish was that Ashley was getting ready to sell the club. Obviously, that did not happen, but with the recent criticism and Ashley’s response to it, it is likely that Ashley could pull the trigger on this deal.

One writer hinted to the plausibility of the deal, by looking at Ashley’s reported asking price and of course the reasons he is selling.

If Ashley were to actually sell this would likely come with an influx of money to spend in the transfer window, but now how the Man City sale occurred. With the club transitioning similarly to how West Brom or Southampton have. Even without the influx of money, you would imagine this would sure up Rafa’s future with the club, with a manager with his caliber likely getting full control of the football side of the club.

This sale, if it were to happen, would mean yet another British club who would not be owned by an Englishman, bringing that number up to 9 clubs in the premiership fully owned by foreigners (Chrystal Palace is excluded from this number because they have American and English owners). This has been a source of complaints from many fans, especially fans of teams with American owners such as Arsenal fans and Manchester United fans, who both claim their owners don’t care about the sport. With more large international groups looking to buy British teams, this is surely an issue that won’t go away anytime soon

With that being said, I pose this question to you: Is the idea of not being owned by an Englishman a big deal to you, if it means Mike Ashley is no longer the owner of Newcastle?

We would love to hear your thoughts below, as well as on Twitter. Be sure to give us a follow at @ComingHomeNUFC.